Rest day means rest day?

[SofaJockey]

So the sun's shining and I feel really tempted to get out there and run again. But a little voice is telling me 'don't do it', it's your rest day, despite me thinking I feel fine and how dangerous can it be to run again?

So I thought I'd ask online to see if other people would reinforce my little voice.

But that doesn't mean I can't go for a long bracing walk, does it? 😎

[misswobble Graduate]

It means don’t run but anything else is fine. Walking is ace. Mix things up. Swim, cycle, Zumba. Etc etc

[Zev1963 Graduate]

Yes rest days are important. I made the mistake of thinking I could run every day. I complated C25K in 2014. Since then I built up to 25km for my sunday runs. A year ago I decided I was ready to run every day. Big mistake, it doesn't les your body repair itself, and I ended up with recurring ankle problems. Restarted C25K just before Christmas, run W7R1 this evening. So glad to be running again. I will religiously stick to rest days from now on.

[Buddy34 Graduate]

Lots of waking making the most if a beautiful day just no running 😊

[Oldgirlruns Graduate]

It means you probably should go for a bracing walk , or a swim or the gym or anything but run! Read Iannoda Truffe’s pinned post for newbies ( which you may already have done if you’ve been lurking here for a while) - rest days are put in to give our bodies chance to recover properly and they are mandatory SJ! So enjoy the rest - but no running!

[Speedy60 Graduate]

It may feel like a rest day, but it's the day your muscles repair all those micro tears and adapt for the stresses of the next run - the day you actually become fitter! If you run without giving your body that time, you really do risk injury.

Having said that, any non impact exercise is great. Walking, if your body is already adapted to that, exercise bike, rowing machine, swimming, yoga ...

[SofaJockey]

Going to be a bracing walk then. 😄

A salute for the kind reinforcement. 😊

[FleetwoodShuttle Graduate]

According to my PT you definitely need to rest your body from the same kind of exercise. I usually run on Mondays and Fridays and have my PT session on Wednesdays.

[Hidden]

I walk on my rest days

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

When you run, unlike non impact exercise, the impact creates microtears in your muscles, which repair and strengthen on your rest days, not while running. Without rest, repair and strengthening are compromised and injury risk increased, as explained in the guide to the plan.